


More Than Just a Memory

by malecyday



Series: Malec Drabbles [11]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Domestic Fluff, I blame twitter for getting me off track, Immortal Love, Lightwood-Bane - Freeform, Lightwood-Banes Being a Family, M/M, Magnus tells stories, Parent-Child Relationship, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, because Lightwood-Bane is my weakness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 03:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11266884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malecyday/pseuds/malecyday
Summary: Magnus has many stories to tell of his immortal life, most he has told many times before - some more PG than others - but here, in front of his children and husband, is always different. Special.A Lightwood-Bane night in where Magnus tells a story to his husband and three kids. AKA "Magnus is a lying shit but Alec loves him anyway".





	More Than Just a Memory

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! So, I've been facing some major block due to exams and whatnot, so this might be a little rustier than usual, but I still hope I managed to live up to my usual fluffy extra-ness. Sit back and enjoy!  
> Thanks to Priya for creating the idea for this with me+murdering me with gifs and art for "motivation", and to Grant for helping develop the idea a little more and for the alternate title ;D

“Daddy!”

Alec looks up from the pile of paperwork on his desk to see a little blue toddler in red overalls running through his office door. In an instant, his son is crawling onto his lap and smiling up at him, blue eyes shining. Alec can’t help the happy grin that overcomes his face, especially when three more people come running in after him.

“Max!” Magnus says, stopping at the door and pausing to observe the scene. “I told you daddy is working.” His attempt to sound stern is made less convincing with the wide grin on his face. Beside him, Madzie and Rafael don’t bother hiding their amusement either, taking in Max’s oblivious hugging with small giggles.

“It's alright,” Alec says and raises to his feet with Max’s arms around his neck, hugging him close. Madzie and Rafe are quick to run over and join him, hugging Alec around his legs with a quiet “hi dad”. Magnus watches with a content smile, absently moving closer.

“Are you finished working, dad?” Rafe asks, grabbing one of his dad’s hands and tugging him towards the door. “Papa says he’ll tell us a story if it doesn’t get too late!”

Madzie nods quickly and joins her brother, grabbing the same hand and pulling with a frown. “You and Papa have been working late nights all week, and Uncle Ragnor makes us watch documentaries when he babysits! We want a story!”

Magnus laughs and reaches over to place a hand on Madzie’s wild black hair fondly. “That sounds like the bugger alright.”

Madzie looks up and frowns at him. “He doesn’t even let me practice magic. I thought he was a professor.”

“He is,” Magnus scoffs. “But you’re forgetting, darling, you’re my daughter. He doesn’t want you to be anywhere near as reckless as me.”

“That sounds boring,” she pouts. Magnus grins, looking over at Alec with a sly wink when he hears him laugh incredulously.

Meanwhile, Rafe isn’t getting any younger. “So, can we go?” he whines.

Rafe is a special fan of Magnus’ stories. Unlike Max and Madzie, he is not a warlock, and so he has a certain curiosity that comes when the majority of your family are immortal warlocks. He's always the one to ask questions, and usually the only one to stay awake during the whole detailed adventure. And Magnus doesn’t mind the attention. Sometimes he even lets Rafe sneak off with him to sleep in his and Alec’s bed as a special endurance reward, leaving Alec on the floor with the others. His husband doesn’t mind as much as he says he does.

Magnus smiles at Rafe, then turns his attention back on Alec with a raised brow. Without hesitation or a backwards glance at his remaining work, Alec nods, moving to greet his husband properly with a quick kiss the kids groan at.

They draw away, sticking their tongues out at their kids in a very adult-like fashion, and Magnus wastes no time in turning and lifting his hands to form a portal for them. Before he can, however, Madzie reaches out to tug on his outstretched arm.

“Oh, Papa! Can I make the portal?” she pleads. “I know how! Aunt Cat said I was a natural when I trained with her today!”

Magnus opens his mouth, about to respond, but his eye catches Max’s head snapping up from where it had been resting in the crook of Alec’s neck. “I want to do it!” he starts chanting as he wiggles around in Alec’s arms until he gets the message and sets him down. Once grounded, he faces Madzie with a pout on his little blue lips. “I want to do it!”

Madzie rolls her eyes. “Max, you can’t even summon your own toys from our room!”

“Yes I -”

“Darlings,” Magnus interrupts, crouching down beside the two of them. “Who wants an extra special story tonight?”

They all shout excitedly in response, and Magnus gives them a stern look. “Then I’ll do the portal tonight, and we can start as soon as possible.”

The two little warlocks see no problems with that, and all but start jumping on the spot in anticipation.

It had become a special treat for all of them, to hear one of Magnus’ many stories. Sometimes he tells of his days adventuring with Catarina and Ragnor, sometimes he tells them about Alec and himself saving the world, and every time he adds a thin layer of exaggeration Alec can always detect, but that especially enraptures their children.

Magnus knows Alec loves it. Probably just as much as the kids.

So, when they step through the portal, the kids rush to get their pyjamas on while their parents go to the kitchen to make hot chocolate. A necessity for one of Magnus’ stories.

As they wait, they overhear the kids arguing about who can get dressed fastest. Their unconscious smiles turn towards each other, and a warmth overcomes the both of them, completely happy with how their night - that would otherwise involve annoying clients or ungrateful Shadowhunters - turned out.How their lives turned out.

“What does your story entail tonight?” Alec asks as he walks over and rests his hands on his husband’s waist. It's been years, but his cat eyes and his makeup and his ever-present little smile never fails to take Alec's breath away. Magnus seems to know that. He grins and brushes their lips together playfully.

“You'll have to wait and see.”

They turn to the sound of loud footsteps approaching to see the kids standing in their pyjamas in the doorway. Madzie in her pink dressing gown, Max in his onesie, and Rafe in his favourite Avengers pyjamas (courtesy of Simon last Christmas). They all look very awake and very expectant, so when Magnus lets out an abrupt laugh and starts walking, they're already running back to their room in a frenzy.

Once they had all moved in - first Madzie, then Max, then Rafe - Madzie had insisted on them all sharing a room. She had been a shy little thing at first, but it was clear that she had just never been treated like the little girl she was, forced to live in a world where everything was life or death. Having a family, having brothers, helped immensely to bring the child out of her, and soon she brought it out in the lost boy Rafe once was, and they all really became siblings.

When Magnus walks in hand-in-hand with Alec, they are already set up as they are whenever Magnus decides to tell a story. They all sit on a pile of cushions on the floor, a big space in the middle for Alec to sit, and a chair in front of them for Magnus to present with his usual theatric grandeur.

Alec sits down between the three of them, allowing Madzie to rest her head against his chest, Rafe to stretch his legs across his lap, and Max to take his hand and play with the lone ring on his left hand as they wait. Magnus watches with an easy smile as he rifles through a list of stories in his head. He has many stories to tell of his immortal life, most he has told many times before - some more PG than others - but here, in front of his children and husband, is always different. Special. He wants a good one.

When he finally picks one, he leans forward, snaps his fingers, and conjures the hot chocolate from the kitchen into everyone's hands. Instantly, all eyes are on him.

“Your papa knew a Queen once, you know,” he starts, and the kids’ eyes widen. “When I lived in England, Ragnor and I would dazzle her with our magic sometimes. Well, I did. Ragnor was too busy telling me he would tell Cat and expose my true idiocy once and for all," he says, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, she and I were close...”

He continues on, watching the rise and fall of emotions as he adds details to his slightly exaggerated experience, a feeling of pride filling him with every small giggle and intrigued question that starts off as persistent as rainfall, but gradually gets less and less frequent, the story enveloping them all. Of course, Alec is always there to point out inconsistencies, a disbelieving smirk gracing his lips constantly.

"You enchanted the entire Lord Chamberlain's Men cast to perform a play you and William _Shakespeare_ wrote?"

Magnus smirks, waving his hand as if it were no big deal. "As you know, darling I am _quite_ magical."

Alec scoffs, but shuts up and lets him continue, settling back among the half-asleep kids.

Magnus continues on, going into detail about the difficulties of writing a whole play, as well as planning it. Although, he did have fun dressing so many people. And sneaking Cat into the performance to play the lead character.

Speaking all of his thoughts at this point, he concludes. “And that is how I met Shakespeare, helped him write Twelfth Night in one night, and enchanted his acting company to perform it for the Queen. Many of his sonnets were about me, y’know. Don't ask Ragnor about it, though, his English soul wouldn't be able to stand the thought...”

He pauses. He had gotten so caught up in the story, he hadn't realised that the eyes that were once intrigued are now all closed. Even his husband’s. He grins with a shake of his head then stands, taking out his phone and snapping a picture of the precious scene. Alec’s arm is around Rafe, pulling him to his chest, while Madzie and Max’s faces are resting on either of his thighs, Madzie’s hair out and covering her face completely.

Standing there a while longer with a grin plastered on his face, Magnus realises that this, _this_ is it. What he’s always wanted but what immortality and relationship issues never let him have. _This is what had been missing._ He has gone on some pretty crazy adventures all over the world, some allowing him to meet many legendary historical and cultural figures, but never were any of them anything like the adventures he had embarked upon as soon as he had met Alexander.

And he knows that, at some point in the distant future, these kinds of memories, these experiences Magnus never faced before in his immortal life, will become Magnus' favourite stories to tell to whoever will listen.

**Author's Note:**

> This somehow ended up being about immortality again. Whoops. And yes, Magnus definitely knew Shakespeare, he didn't lie about that.  
> Thanks for reading! Kudos' are always welcome, but your thoughts give me life! Was it fluffy enough for you? ;) Let me know, I have [twitter](https://twitter.com/Samwastherealhe) if you want to @ your thoughts too! :) Byee


End file.
